There was a moment in every Young Master's life when he was forced to rethink some of his more questionable life choices. Usually, those moments involved having his life ruined by a particularly spiteful MC possessing more plot armor than mercy. In my case, it involved my beloved queen staring at me quietly, her smile as sweet as a summer peach, and her red eyes betraying not a single emotion.
Also, she wasn't blinking. That was a bad omen.
I was fairly certain my mother had smiled in a similar manner before asking my father a question last year—the kind that usually resulted in the latter checking his food for poison for the rest of the week.
"My beloved king, he who basks in the morning sun—mayest thou indulge this lowly, crownless queen and share thy reasons for facing the Gods-bane spear in single combat?" Valerie's voice was as melodic as it was warm and caring, which only made the question more unsettling.
"My darling Moonshine", I forced myself to return a smile. "Is there a wrong answer to that question?"
Her expression didn't change in the slightest as she tilted her head in a cutesy manner.
"There are plenty of wrong answers."
Heavens be damned!
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Sona Sitri's POV
Despite her sister's protests—or perhaps because of them—she watched the so-called First International Senjutsu Tournament (FIST) in its entirety. Watching people her own age fight at a level she was struggling to reach, even after extensive training, was a humbling experience, to say the least. Being able to beat Rias in a mock fight more often than not amounted to little if these were the people she had to compare herself with. That was to say nothing of her temporary fiancé, who somehow managed to be the person who arguably showed the greatest skill in senjutsu among the fighters with his flower bed trick.
That was why it was perfectly understandable that she had accidentally frozen her TV after watching an idiotic devil get stabbed by what appeared to be the True Longinus—the same weapon said to vaporize most devils with a single scratch. However, there was simply no way any reasonable person would allow the use of a god-slaying weapon in what was meant to be a Senjutsu tournament; therefore, there was nothing to be worried about.
She would simply call Serafall and confirm that everything was perfectly fine—just as she knew it was.
...
The next day…
After her older sister grumpily stated—or rather, complained—that he was still alive, Sona decided to pay him a visit, and perhaps stab the idiot herself.
"Hello, Valerie," she calmly greeted the dhampyr, who was standing in front of a door without blinking. Valerie's admittedly beautiful scarlet eyes reminded her of Rias's hair, but her best friend's colors lacked that cold promise of death those red orbs were showing. "Do you happen to know where I can find Riser?"
The pale girl turned around and bowed to her, displaying her refined manners once again.
"Ah, I fear the King of Chickens is currently taking refuge inside this fortress—his castle—after refusing his beloved wife a proper answer to soothe her worries away. If thou wert to give this witch leave to guess, she would accuse the feathered one of cultivating all alone so as to avoid our wrath."
Taking a deep breath, Sona pinched the bridge of her nose. She hated the fact that she perfectly understood every single word the girl said.
"For how long will he be hiding inside his room?"
"Not long enough to atone for his guilt," Valerie replied without missing a beat.
She took some cold comfort in knowing that she wasn't the only one angry at his idiocy—although part of her wondered if the bloodlust radiating from the dhampyr girl should be taken literally or figuratively, considering she actually consumed real blood. It was an amusing question.
Soon enough, Valerie led her to the guest room to partake of some brightly colored pastries and freshly brewed coffee. To be completely honest, it made her feel a bit uncomfortable—not because of Valerie, who was very proper and cordial, but because of the coffee. It was prepared exactly how she liked it, which was unsettling, as she was fairly certain this was her first time drinking coffee at the Phenex Mansion. Valerie had even stirred the spoon the precise number of times.
For the sake of her sanity, she wisely opted to ignore all of that and focus her attention on another subject. Any subject, really.
"My apologies if I am overstepping my boundaries here, but I am curious about something." This question had been in her head for a while. "I can't help but notice that you often refer to Riser as your husband."
Since an actual marriage would require the approval of the Phenex Clan, it was odd for Valerie to call herself his wife before being officially recognized by the clan. Regardless of Riser's wishes or Valerie's potential, official status was vital for these kinds of things. To be completely honest, Sona had simply assumed it was a fetish thing, but she really needed a conversation topic right now.
"Tis the truth." Valerie nodded fervently. "Under the gaze of my blood and his companion, this witch-princess bent the knee and proclaimed a promise betwixt two souls, offering a ring made of the flesh of the beasts that provided her with nourishment."
She barely managed to resist massaging the bridge of her nose, if only to avoid being unnecessarily dismissive of the girl. It was her own fault for expecting a reasonable answer.
"In short: you proposed in the middle of nowhere."
"Aye," Valerie replied confidently.
"Without anyone there but you, your brother, Riser, and his servant?"
"Aye," she replied once again with the same amount of unwavering confidence, refusing to even consider the idea that her logic could be problematic at best.
"I suppose it's nice to see you two have a very close relationship," Sona sighed in defeat. This was likely the kind of nonsensical relationship her best friend, Rias, dreamed of having.
"Our relationship is still in development, but I'm sure I can secure myself a spot as his official wife in three or four years. Maybe less if I take full advantage of his current emotional vulnerability—the result of his first real defeat." The girl shrugged nonchalantly, her previous speaking pattern nowhere to be seen.
Sona blinked in bewilderment and watched as Valerie started scribbling in a notebook like a madwoman—which was probably an apt description for the dhampyr most of the time.
"There is nothing for you to worry about," Sona tried to calm the girl down. "I'm sure that Riser would still insist on making you his official first wife even without you taking any drastic measures."
Despite her position as Riser Phenex's official fiancée, Sona wasn't interested in going through with the arranged marriage, but she could still understand why Valerie would feel threatened or jealous. The dhampyr likely saw marriage as the key to eternal love or another silly concept related to witches or princesses. While Sona couldn't personally understand why anyone would desire to marry so young when devils were known to live for thousands of years, she hoped her words were comforting enough.
"Oh, it is not about something so silly as an imaginary pecking order." Valerie stopped writing and hummed in deep thought. "If I were to put it into words, I would say that this is an issue of tactical shrewdness. Because of both his personality and that book, he would prioritize a wife's happiness over a simple love interest in order to maximize his own chances of comfortable survival, thus ensuring the existence of a romantic bond between us. The fact that Riser is letting me scold him, despite the fact he is technically my boss and much stronger than myself, just to humor me is a sign my efforts are bearing fruit. The more he likes me, the more likely he is to defend me from danger."
What?
"Also, I know myself well enough to understand that I would be more inclined to fall in love with a husband who has a sense of duty toward me than with a fiancé who could change his mind about the potential value of his lover."
It was easier to understand her when she was using archaic, Shakespearean words.
"I doubt that it would come to that."
"You are right; that would be an extremely unlikely thing to happen, but it would make falling in love easier for both of us," Valerie admitted. "Just to be clear, I don't intend to use him; I decided to fall in love with him not only for the advantages he offered but also because I could see myself doing so while being reciprocated. In a similar fashion, Riser accepted my courting because he was told to do so by his book and believed me to be beautiful."
She took another sip of her coffee, emptying the cup. Despite its high quality and the apparent effort that went into its preparation, the flavor of the brew seemed insignificant when compared to the thoughts swarming her mind.
There was a certain book in the castle's library that explained why it was impossible for devils to fully comprehend the thought process of certain species. It used dragons as an obvious example, since they were widely known to mentally divide the world into two categories: their property and their enemies. By that logic, trying to explain a relationship beyond animosity—or a variant of the "possessor and the possessed"—to a dragon was usually a waste of time, as they were not genetically predisposed to such concepts.
Maybe that was what was happening right now. Valerie Tepes was part vampire; perhaps this was the only way her kind could understand the world.
"And you are fine with this convoluted fabrication?" It was a hopeless question, intended to hide her own feelings on the matter.
"Does it matter?" The vampire shrugged as if there wasn't anything wrong with it. "At the end of the day, I am doing this because I want to, and the feelings that we both develop will still be real. Sure, it is extremely manipulative, but Riser can also be very emotionally manipulative as well, so it's fine."
This didn't fit with the profile Sona had in her head for either the vampire or her temporary fiancé. Heck, even that dark-haired fox youkai working as a senjutsu teacher at the Phenex Mansion described them as 'annoyingly lovey-dovey' at times.
"This doesn't make any sense. You can't call something like that love."
"Why not? Love itself is something extremely conditional, since it is normally born from things such as duty, lust, the desire for safety, or being starved for affection." That... was wrong. "Actually, since you are the one grooming Riser, I probably should start courting you, too. Avoiding anything that Leviathan would do should be a good start."
She didn't bother to correct the girl, nor did she flinch at the mention of her sister. Perhaps the vampire was confusing 'lust' and 'crush' with 'love'. It was easy to see the first two as conditional—subject to changes and whims.
She thought about her own family for a second and took a deep breath. Valerie was wrong; she needed to prove it.
"Valerie," she said, calling the vampire by her name. "You are now under the Sitri Clan's protection. As long as your actions don't go against my blood relatives' or my associates' best interests, nor put any of them in danger, you will be provided help and refuge in cases of necessity. Further attempts to get closer to me will not offer extra benefits."
It wasn't an offer; it was a statement. What Valerie Tepes did after this was irrelevant; the message was clear. Call her prideful, but Sona would not accept any form of 'love' or 'friendship' that wouldn't fit her vision of how the world should work.
After a long silence that extended for almost a full minute, Valerie smiled softly at her. "You are a nice person."
"I did this mostly for the sake of pointing out the flaws in your logic."
The vampire giggled and shrugged as if their previous conversation meant nothing. "Emotions themselves are flawed; that is why they seem so fun to experience." She paused and looked at her hesitantly. "I think that I want to be your friend."
It was hard to understand this pale girl. Sona doubted she would like to understand the girl even if she could.
"As I said, it won't make any difference." And even if it did, it wasn't as if the two of them would become fast friends after this conversation. Friendship required time and effort.
"I believe that it will make a difference to me," Valerie Tepes concluded after a few seconds. "By the way, how do you feel about tango?"
Sona couldn't help but flinch at the question. For a moment, the expression on the dhampyr's face reminded her of Serafall.
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Dhamira Phenex's POV
What is a devil if not desire made flesh? Creatures created for the sake of sinning against the idea of purity and good. Madness and obsession are the greatest blessings a devil could hope to attain, for they give focus and meaning to an otherwise whimsical and volatile existence.
Devils are unable to feel boredom by design, since boredom could be a dangerous thing in such long-lived creatures prone to excess. Funnily enough, this makes them most similar to angels—those feathered beings that fear their own minds. On second thought, it makes sense for devils to be similar to angels, since the first Lucifer hadn't been the most original being in existence. It was still a mystery to everyone how that petty asshole didn't get himself killed by the Biblical God seconds after his tantrum in the heavens.
Knowing this was the consequence of his nature as a devil—a nature that she herself had encouraged in him—how could she blame her child for putting himself at risk for the sake of obtaining one of the few things he ever yearned for?
With that in mind, the first thing she did at the sight of Riser, who was awaiting punishment for failing to keep his promise to never lose, was to slap him.
*Slap*
Twice.
*Slap*
One of the best things about being a devil was that no one expected her not to be a hypocrite.
"Why in hell didn't you escape after failing to poison your opponent?" Not even an hour would be enough time to properly scold this child. "You should have complained to the judges about him being allowed to use a Sacred Gear in a senjutsu competition, at the very least."
Revive was the first one to vote in favor of engaging Riser to Yasaka's daughter after that fiasco—a decision that Aurelio supported because, despite Revive's infamy as a hedonist weakling in the Underworld, her second son was actually the most business-savvy person in the Phenex Clan. Her family squeezed as many benefits as they could from Yasaka, who only accepted the deal because she must have believed that Riser was a mutant like the current Lucifer or Beelzebub.
Things ended up working quite well for the Phenex Clan. She only had one tiny little problem with the whole situation: her young chick had been skewered by the HOLIEST of weapons in existence!
"I am sorry?" Riser apologized like a timid kid—an image worthy of being filmed and shown to her future grandchildren.
Now she could ask him what he was sorry about to see if he understood why she was angry at him... but she decided against it. If that hadn't worked with Aurelio after centuries of marriage, it certainly wouldn't work with Riser.
"Just... prepare yourself. You will be debuting at a Bael party in a few weeks."
With a bit of luck, Riser would convince everyone that he was a mutant. That would be the perfect excuse to explain how he survived being impaled by the Longinus without revealing that they had access to the Sephiroth Graal. For this to work, her son only needed to be himself; in other words, trash the place after beating a few High-Class devils to a bloody pulp with barely any effort.
"Damage control," Riser nodded.
" And remember to have fun. This will be your social debut, so you should try to enjoy yourself a little," she added.
To add fuel to the fire, they would also send Ravel to the party. The poor girl must be exhausted from defending Riser's non-existent reputation in the Underworld, so she would be delighted to have a chance to show everyone that her favorite brother wasn't a failure, which would surely escalate things even more.
After her son left the room, Dhamira sighed tiredly, feeling the urge to either eat a whole cake by herself or kill someone she didn't like. In order to blow off some steam, she would be breaking her husband's hips tonight... at least thrice.